There is no verified terror attack in cities with business centers and churches in Northern Luzon, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said yesterday.
Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, issued the clarification amid the leak of an alert memo issued to intelligence units in Northern Luzon over the weekend.
The alert memo issued to the intelligence units of the AFP-Northern Luzon Command showed they were directed to conduct heightened intelligence monitoring to verify a report about a “Crusader City” with business centers and “Crusader Churches” in their area of operation that are “being targeted for terror attack.”
The alert memo, issued on Friday and signed by Col. Glenn Celebrado, assistant chief of the unified command staff for intelligence, was apparently leaked and has since made rounds in social media.
A crusader city is a term used by Islamic State to describe a “target area” to fuel what they call “Bandar Crusade” or a supposed “war between Muslims and Christians,” the alert memo said.
On the other hand, a crusader church is the IS’ generic term for all historic Catholic churches, it added.
The military in the region was ordered to conduct heightened intelligence monitoring which fit the description of areas in the intelligence information, including Laoag City; Vigan City; Manaoag in Pangasinan; and Tuguegarao City, among others.
“The document is genuine but the intent for issuing it is primarily for verification as to the reliability of the source and the veracity of the information,” Arevalo said.
Lt. Gen. Ramiro Manuel Rey, commander of the AFP-Northern Luzon Command, echoed Arevalo’s pronouncements and said the intelligence information turned out to be “negative” upon validation.
“It’s an authentic memo. It’s a raw information given to our intelligence unit that’s why we want to verify it. It’s not an advisory, it was issued to confirm the authenticity of the information we received,” he explained. “We advised our intelligence to confirm the report but there’s no truth to it. Kumbaga raw information,” he noted. (Martin Sadongdong)
